Blue velvet takes on a shocking shade of death in Byerrum's first-rate seventh Crime of Fashion mystery starring Washington, D.C., fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian (after 2008's Armed and Glamorous). Lacey's boyfriend, Vic Donovan, a security expert (and former Sagebrush, Colo., police chief), accompanies Lacey to interview Rod Gibbs (aka Blue Devil), the hated company spokesperson and part owner of Dominion Velvet, a newly closed velvet factory in Black Martin, Va. When Rod turns up dead and stained midnight blue in a dye vat after having been hit on the head and shot, no one, neither employees nor Rod's estranged wife, mourns his demise. Complications ensue after Lacey learns that Claudia Darnell, her publisher, is a Dominion Velvet silent partner, along with politician Tazewell Flanders. A serious look at the decline of the U.S. textile and newspaper industries provides much food for thought. (Feb.)